Friday, August 3, 2012

Hunting Humans

Unexpected Discovery

The state motto for Alaska is “North to
the Future,” but if you ask anyone who has ever been there, they will
probably describe it as the last American frontier. Even though it is
the biggest state in the country (2.3 times the size of Texas) the
population consists of only 634,892 residents, ranking it 47 among all
other U.S. territories. Nonetheless, there is no other place like it
on earth. The terrain consists of beautiful ocean coasts, rushing
rivers, magnificent mountain peaks, famous glaciers, temperate rain
forests, and an abundance of wildlife. A piece of America that
continues to offer residents and visitors alike a pure wilderness
experience.

Map of Alaska, showing Anchorage and the Knik River valley area

The Knik River valley is a preferred
hunting ground for veteran trophy hunters. Just twenty-five miles from
the city of Anchorage, the winding gorge—carved by prehistoric glacial
ice—makes it a perfect place to find mountain goats, Dall sheep, black
bears, and moose. On September 12, 1982, John Daily and Audi Holloway,
two off-duty Anchorage police officers, spent an afternoon hunting
along the Knik River.

According to Butcher Baker by
Walter Gilmour and Leland E. Hale, the two men had little luck and as
darkness began to fall they decided to call it a day. The trek was not
necessarily easy, but both men were familiar with the area and cut
across a wide sandbar. However, as they progressed up the river, they
noticed a boot sticking out of the sand. Normally a find like this
would not be cause for concern, but for any police officer, curiosity
denotes investigation. Upon closer inspection, the two men were taken
aback. Sticking out of the sand was a partially decomposed bone joint.
Once their minds registered what they were looking at, both men backed
up from the scene. The last thing they wanted to do was disturb or
contaminate any evidence. After making note of the location, both men
made their way out of the gorge and back to their camp.

Gilmour and Hale wrote that
Sergeant Rollie Port was assigned to cover the investigation. A
decorated Vietnam veteran, Port was considered one of the top
investigators on the force. He was meticulous with every crime scene
and was known to spend hours going over the smallest area. Before
disturbing the body, Port had photographs taken from every angle and
carefully examined the body itself for trace evidence before having it
bagged. Afterwards, he pulled out a large screen and began sifting
through the sand around the body. It took several hours for him to
finish sifting, but in the end it paid off. Lying on the screen before
him was a single shell casing from a .223-caliber bullet. Port was
familiar with this type of ammunition and knew that it was used in
high-powered rifles like M-16s, Mini-14s, or AR-15s.

Sherry Morrow, victim

Back in Anchorage, a preliminary autopsy
revealed that the victim was a female, of undetermined age, and had
been dead for approximately six months. The cause of death was three
gunshot wounds from .223-caliber bullets. Ace bandages were found
mingled in with the remains, causing investigators to suspect that the
victim had been blindfolded at the time of death. It took a little
over two weeks to finally identify the body as that of 24-year-old
Sherry Morrow, a dancer from the Wild Cherry Bar in downtown
Anchorage. She was last seen on November 17, 1981. According to
friends, she was going to see a man that had offered her $300 to pose
for some pictures.

“Eklutna Annie”

Anchorage police had a sneaking
suspicion that Sherry Morrow’s murder was not an isolated incident.
Over the last two years, there was a sudden increase in the number of
missing persons reports being filed, many of which were topless dancers
and prostitutes. Prior to this latest discovery, the reports had not
prompted much attention. Prostitutes tend to be loners and often
travel from city to city, only to reappear years later. If there was a
link, investigators did not want to tip the killer off. Any concerns
they had were kept private.

When discussing Morrow’s murder with The Anchorage Daily News,
investigators said they doubted that it was related to the
disappearance of at least three other women since 1980. ”We don’t
believe we have a mass murderer out there, some psycho knocking off
girls,” said Anchorage police detective Maxine Farrell.

Joanne Messina

Alaska State Trooper sergeant Lyle
Haugsven was assigned to determine whether or not Sherry Morrow’s
murder was an isolated incident. Working with the Anchorage Police
Department, the two agencies began sharing files and comparing notes.
According to Bernard DuClos in Fair Game, the first indication
of a possible link appeared to be with two unsolved cases from 1980.
In the first case, construction workers digging near Eklutna Road
discovered the partial remains of a woman buried in a shallow grave.
Animals had taken off with a majority of the remains and there was very
little evidence at the scene. The victim had never been identified and
was dubbed “Eklutna Annie” by police assigned to the case. Later that
same year, another body was found in a nearby gravel pit. The victim
was later identified as Joanne Messina, a local topless dancer.
Unfortunately, her body was badly decomposed and, as with “Eklutna
Annie”, there was little evidence to be found. In the end, Haugsven had
few leads to follow and very little evidence at his disposal.

As months passed, hope of catching the
killer began to diminish. Then, on the night of June 13, 1983,
everything seemed to turn around. Earlier that evening, a trucker was
passing through town when he noticed a frantic young female waving her
arms and calling out to him. The girl had a pair of handcuffs dangling
from one of her wrists and her clothing was disheveled. She told the
trucker that a man was after her and asked him to take her to the Big
Timber Motel. Once inside, she had the front desk clerk place a call
for her. As she waited outside for her pimp, the truck driver drove
straight to the Anchorage Police Department and reported the incident.

When Anchorage Police Officer Gregg
Baker arrived at the Big Timber Motel, he found the girl alone and
still in handcuffs. Once he removed her cuffs, she began telling him
an extraordinary story. According to reports she gave to
investigators, she had been approached on the street by a 40ish,
red-haired man, and offered $200 for oral sex. She agreed to the
price, but midway through the act the man locked a handcuff around her
wrist and pulled out a gun. He told her if she cooperated he would not
kill her. He then drove to his house in Muldoon, an upper class area
not far from town. Once inside, the man brutally raped her, bit her
nipples, and at one point shoved a hammer into her vagina. After a
brief rest, the man said that he was going to fly her to his cabin in
the mountains and told her he would let her go if she cooperated. Upon
their arrival at the airport, her kidnapper shoved her inside a small
plane and began loading supplies. The young prostitute knew she was in
serious trouble and that the man would probably kill her once they got
to his cabin. Waiting until his back was turned, she shoved open the
door and ran for her life. According to her, he chased after her at
first, but then relented when he saw her wave down the truck driver.

A Suspect Emerges

After making a formal statement at police
headquarters, investigators drove the young prostitute to Merrill
Field, the airport where she had been taken. They were hoping she
could identify her abductor’s plane. As they drove through the small
airport, she spotted a blue-and-white Piper Super Cub, tail number
N3089Z and identified the plane. A check with the flight tower
revealed that the plane belonged to Robert C. Hansen, who lived on Old
Harbor Road.

Gilmour and Hale wrote that after
dropping the woman off at the hospital, Baker and a group of fellow
officers went directly to Hansen’s house. Hansen became outraged when
confronted with the young woman’s charges. He claimed to have never
met the girl and stated that she was probably trying to shake him down
for money. To him, the entire story was absurd. “You can’t rape a
prostitute can you?” he said. Hansen went on to state that his wife
and two children were vacationing in Europe and said that he had spent
the entire evening with two friends. His alibi checked out and no
formal charges were filed.

Paula Golding, victim

Just as things seemed to be calming down
again, investigators were called to the scene of another grisly
discovery. According to reports in The Anchorage Daily News
on September 2, 1983, just 10 days shy of the one-year anniversary of
discovering Sherry Morrow, another body was found along Knik River.
The remains were partially decomposed and buried in a shallow grave.
The victim, later identified as 17-year-old Paula Golding, was a topless
dancer and prostitute from Anchorage. She’d gone missing some five
months earlier. An autopsy revealed that she had been shot with a
.223-caliber bullet.

Investigators were now convinced they
had a serial killer on their hands and contacted the FBI for
assistance. This was not the first time Alaska authorities had dealt
with a serial killer, but their last attempt was not successful.
Between 1979 and 1981, serial killer Thomas Richard Bunday murdered at
least five Fairbanks-area women. When police finally discovered who
their killer was, he was already on the run. Just one hour after his
arrest warrant was issued, he committed suicide by plowing his
motorcycle head-on into a truck.

The FBI was known for its dogged
determination in serial murder investigations and everyone seemed to
agree on asking for their assistance. In response to Anchorage’s
request for help, the FBI’s Investigative Support Unit sent Special
Agent John Douglas, a legendary figure in law enforcement, to help
profile Alaska’s latest serial killer. Many local investigators felt
that Robert Hansen was still a viable suspect and were anxious to share
their suspicions with Douglas.

Closing In

John Douglas’ Mind Hunter

In his 1996 book Mind Hunter: Inside the FBI’s Elite Serial Crime Unit,
John Douglas describes his initial profile of Alaska’s suspected serial
murderer. According to Douglas, the perpetrator specifically chose
prostitutes and topless dancers, because the majority were transients
and usually went unnoticed. Upon the urging of local investigators,
Douglas began looking into Robert Hansen’s background. He took note of
the fact that Hansen was of small stature, heavily pockmarked and
suffered from a severe speech impediment. Due to Hansen’s unsightly
looks, Douglas surmised that he suffered from severe skin problems as
an adolescent and was probably teased by his peers. In turn, he would
have low self-esteem, which would have prompted him to live in an
isolated area. Douglas considered the abuse of prostitutes a way for
perpetrators to get back at women. If Hansen was the killer, he was
probably using them as a way to get his revenge. Several investigators
were familiar with Hansen and said that he was known around the area
as a proficient hunter. He earned this reputation after taking down a
wild Dall sheep with a crossbow. Perhaps, Douglas surmised, Robert
Hansen tired of elk, bear and Dall sheep, and had instead turned his
attention to more interesting prey. As the profile progressed, Douglas
told investigators that if Hansen was the killer, he was probably a
“saver” and would be keeping small souvenirs from his victims.

Robert Hansen mug shot

The only way to rule Hansen out as a
suspect would be for investigators to find a hole in his alibi.
Douglas suspected that his friends were lying for him and encouraged
investigators to threaten them with charges if they were found to be
lying. State Police sergeant Glenn Flothe decided to bring the men in
for questioning. As it turned out, the strategy worked and both men
confessed and said that they had not been with Robert Hansen on the
night the young prostitute was abducted and brought to the airport.
Investigators also learned from Hansen’s friends that he was committing
insurance fraud. Apparently, a burglary he reported to police in which
several items were stolen from his home never occurred and Hansen was
hiding the items in his basement. After learning of Hansen’s deceit,
Flothe went before Judge Victor Carlson with a 48-page affidavit and
secured eight search warrants to be executed against Robert Hanson and
his property.

Murder weapons evidence

On October 27, 1983, investigators
followed Hansen to work and asked him to come with them to the police
station for questioning. Hansen never bothered to ask why they wanted
to talk to him and agreed to go along. Simultaneously, two groups of
investigators served warrants on Hansen’s house and plane. According
to the book Hunting Humans by Michael Newton, investigators
found weapons throughout the house, but nothing to implicate Hansen
in any of the murders. Then, just as they were about to call it a day,
one of the officers discovered a hidden space tucked away in the attic
rafters. Within it, they discovered a Remington 552 rifle; a Thompson
contender 7-mm single-shot pistol; an aviation map, with specific
locations marked off; various pieces of jewelry; newspaper clippings; a
Winchester 12-gauge shotgun; a driver’s license, and various ID cards,
some of which belonged to the dead women. As incriminating as these
items were, the most important piece of evidence was found last — a
.223-caliber Mini-14 rifle.

A Killer’s Past

Robert Hansen yearbook photo

Robert Christian Hansen was born on
February 15, 1939, in Esterville, Iowa to Christian Hansen, a Danish
immigrant baker and his wife Edna. DuClos wrote that Hansen had a
difficult upbringing. His father was very strict and insisted that his
son work long hours in the family’s bakery. Adding to this
ever-present strain, he was always considered small for his age and his
face bore severe acne sores all throughout his adolescence. In later
years, he would recall his face as “one big pimple.” Although he was
naturally left-handed, his parents forced him to use his right hand.
In later years, he would claim that the resulting stress made his
slight stuttering problem even worse. He had very few friends in
school and those he did have never got close to him. In 1957, Hansen
graduated high school and shortly thereafter enlisted in the Army
Reserves. Following basic training, he was required to devote one
weekend a month to the military. He spent the rest of his time working
in his father’s bakery and sometimes volunteering as a Pocahontas
Junior Police drill instructor. During 1960, he fell in love with and
married a local girl.

The first major event in Robert Hansen’s
life occurred on December 7, 1960. As retribution for perceived
abuses by the people of Pocahantas, Iowa, he burned down the school bus
garage. Unfortunately for Hansen, a friend turned him in and he was
sentenced to three years in prison. His wife was ashamed of her
husband’s actions and immediately filed for divorce. After serving
only 20 months, Hansen was paroled, despite being assessed as having an
“infantile personality.”

Shortly after his release, he met a
young woman. The two hit it off and were wed in the fall of 1963.
For the next few years, Hansen bounced from job to job and was arrested
several times for petty thefts. In 1967, he decided it was time for a
new start and left for Alaska.

Anchorage appeared to be the perfect
getaway for Robert Hansen. Gilmour and Hale wrote that he was treated
well by the residents and soon earned a reputation as a great
outdoorsman and hunter. He would stalk Dahl sheep, wolves, and bear
with a rifle or bow and arrow. In 1969, 1970 and 1971, he had four
animals entered into Pope & Young’s trophy hunting world-record
books. Hansen’s den was soon loaded with animal mounts.

Robert Hansen’s trophy room

Nonetheless, all his good fortune was
short lived. In 1977 he was arrested for stealing a chainsaw and
sentenced to five years in prison. After a customary mental
evaluation, a prison psychiatrist concluded that Hansen suffered from
“bipolar-effective disorder” and requested that the courts order him to
take lithium to control his mood swings. Regardless, the order was
never enforced and Hansen was released after serving just one year.

During the early 1980s Hansen reported a
burglary to his home, which in the end netted him $13,000 from the
insurance company. Shortly after receiving his settlement, Hansen
opened his own bakery at the corner of 9th and Ingra. By this time,
Hansen and his wife had two children and his problems with the law were
all but forgotten. His business prospered and he was considered a
successful and respected member of the community.

The Deal

Robert Hansen under arrest

Back at State Police Headquarters,
Hansen denied any involvement in the murders. After a brief game of
cat and mouse, he grew tired of the allegations and requested an
attorney. Hansen was then placed under arrest and charged with
assault, kidnapping, weapons offenses, theft and insurance fraud.

On November 3, 1983, an Anchorage grand
jury returned four indictments against Hansen: first-degree assault and
kidnapping, five counts of misconduct in possession of a handgun, theft
in the second-degree, and theft by deception in insurance fraud.
Investigators were still awaiting the ballistic test results on Hansen’s
rifle, so the state decided to hold off on charging him with murder.
Hansen pleaded not guilty to all charges. Bail was set at a
half-million dollars.

Hansen’s rifles, police evidence

Newton wrote that the ballistic test
results finally came in on November 20, 1983. The FBI crime lab in
Washington, D.C., determined that the shell casings found at the
gravesites had all been fired from Hansen’s rifle. The firing pin and
the extractor markings were identical.

Given the mass of evidence building
against him, Hansen realized that the chances of him winning in court
were slim. So, on February 22, 1984, Hansen had his defense attorney,
Fred Dewey, arranged a meeting with Anchorage D. A. Victor Krumm.
During the meeting, Krumm offered Hansen a deal. In exchange for a
full confession, the D.A. guaranteed him that he would only be charged
with the four cases that they knew of, and he would be able to serve
his time in a federal facility, rather than a maximum-security
institution. Hansen reluctantly agreed to the conditions.

After both sides signed off on the
agreement, Hansen began describing one of his typical abductions. The
following transcript, which has been edited for space, was originally
published in Gilmour and Hale’s book: “I pull out the gun—I think the
standard speech was, ‘Look you’re a professional. You don’t get
excited, you know there is some risk to what you’ve been doing. If you
do exactly what I tell you you’re not going to get hurt. You’re just
going to count this off as a bad experience and be a little more
careful next time who you are gonna proposition or go out with,’ you
know. I tried to act as tough as I could, to get them as scared as
possible. Give that right away, even before I started talking at all.
Reach over, you know, and hold that head back and put a gun in her face
and get ‘em to feel helpless, scared, right there I’m sure–maybe it’s
not the same procedure for you–you always try to get control of the
situation, so some things don’t start going bad maybe I’ve seen some
cop shows on TV, I don’t know, OK?”

Robert Hansen’s plane, police evidence

Whenever Hansen got a victim under his
control, he would normally take her to his plane and fly them out to
his remote cabin. According to Newton, he would brutally rape and
torture the women. Afterwards, he would strip them naked, sometimes
going so far as blindfolding them, and set them free in the woods.
Hansen would give his victim a brief head start and then hunt them down
with a hunting knife or a high-powered rifle. In describing his hunts
to investigators, Hansen said that it was like “going after a trophy
Dall sheep or a grizzly bear.”

Hansen’s trophy goat

Closure

When investigators first heard Hansen’s
confession, they couldn’t help but think of the popular fictional story
“The Most Dangerous Game” by writer Richard Connell. The story is
about a shipwrecked trio that find themselves stranded on an uncharted
island, where they meet a Russian Count, known only as General Zaroff.
The group is initially delighted to find someone else on the island,
but their happiness turns to sorrow when they realize that the
shipwreck was no accident and the good general had lured them there so
he could hunt them down. Up until the early 1980s, Richard Connell’s
story was a work of fiction, the product of one man’s imagination.
Robert Hansen was conducting a real life version of “The Most Dangerous
Game.”

As the interview neared its end, Hansen
was provided with a large aerial map of the region. He identified 15
gravesites, 12 of which were unknown to investigators. Since it would
have been nearly impossible to locate any of the graves going by
Hansen’s checkmarks on the map, investigators decided to fly him to
each location. The following day, Hansen accompanied the men to the
Anchorage International Airport, where they boarded a large military
helicopter. Their first stop was along the Knick River, not far from
where Paula Goulding was found. Afterwards, they flew east to Jim
Creek, and then west toward Susitna. Their final stops were due south,
at Horseshoe Lake and Figure Eight Lake. At every stop, Hansen led
investigators to the site, now heavily covered in snow, and they would
mark the trees with orange paint. By the end of the day Hansen had
revealed the gravesites of 12 unknown women.

According to articles published by The Anchorage Daily News,
Robert Hansen pled guilty on February18, 1984, to four counts of
first-degree murder in the cases of Paula Golding, Joanna Messina,
Sherry Morrow, and “Eklutna Annie.” One week later, on February 27,
Superior Court Judge Ralph E. Moody sentenced Hansen to 461 years plus
life, without chance of parole. He was then remanded to Lewisburg
Federal Penitentiary in
Pennsylvania.

By May 1984, investigators had found
seven bodies at the gravesites Robert Hansen pointed out to them. No
other bodies were ever recovered. The summary went as follows:

On April 29, Tamara Pederson – one and a half miles from old Knik Bridge.

On May 9, Lisa Futrell’s – south of old Knik Bridge.

Spring Creek Correctional Center, Seward

In 1988, Hansen was returned to
Alaska and became one of the first inmates in the new Spring Creek
Correctional Center in Seward, where he remains today. Shortly after
his conviction, the record keepers for Pope & Young removed
Hansen’s name from their record books. Hansen’s wife and two children
tried to remain in Alaska, but after two years of harassment, his second
wife filed for divorce and left Alaska for good.

Conservationist Gareth Patterson
recently published an article on his website entitled “The Killing
Fields.” In the piece, Patterson compared the similarities between
trophy animal hunters and serial killers. “Certainly one could state
that, like the serial killer, the trophy hunter plans his killing with
considerable care and deliberation. Like the serial killer, he decides
well in advance the type of victim–that is, which species he intends
to target. Also like the serial killer, the trophy hunter plans with
great care where and how the killing will take place–in what area, with
what weapon. What the serial killer and trophy hunter also share is a
compulsion to collect trophies or souvenirs of their killings. The
serial killer retains certain body parts and/or other trophies for much
the same reason as the big game hunter mounts the head and antlers
taken from his prey…as trophies of the chase,” he said.

On February 21, 2003, more than 20 years
after her decomposed body was found, Alaska State Troopers asked for
the public’s help in identifying “Eklutna Annie.” In an effort to
help solve her identity, state police released information regarding
her clothing and jewelry.